the world of Yobo....a life in DUO

Thursday, August 17, 2006

 

Berry Berry-ing

On Tuesday, I was able to leave the hospital early around 5pm, which is a rare and treasured opportunity (especially while being on my surgery rotation). To take full advantage of such a beautiful day, Amara and I went on a nice little drive out to Sauvie Island for some fresh fruit and berry picking. Neither of us had gone before, but I heard from a classmate that it was a fun activity (he had gone with his wife and 2 year-old daughter). By the time we arrived around 6:15pm, many of the farms were already closed. But fortunately, there was one place called "Kruger's Market" that was open until 8pm. When we got there, the market girl gave each of us a small carton and pointed us in the direction of the berry trees. She indicated to us that the blueberry trees were very sparse, but there would be raspberries and blackberries for us. And the blackberries were extra cool because not only are they tasty, they were free to take! On our way out to the berry fields we saw a small sapling that looked like it had been ripped in two. My comment was, "now that's a sad looking sap--ling." Amara thought it was funny and said, "that's the kind of thing you'll put on your blog, huh?" And she was right!

The berry picking itself was nice. I was instructed in the technique of spotting/picking ready-to-eat, ripe berries. While the raspberries were fairly easy to gather, the blackberries presented a challenge because the trees were super thorny all over the long branches, stems, and leaves. Plus, most of the good berries were hanging deeply intangled in the thornyness. Amara was a real trooper and worked hard to get a bunch of them (and got her hands scraped up a little in the process). At one point, we saw a lot of good berries fairly deep inside the reaches of the thorny branches, but using teamwork, we were able to cash in on a big bunch of them. I stood on and held away some of the interfering branches and also grabbed her arm while she stretched forward to collect the berries.

Overall, it was a fun time with a fruity reward. While we were there, we also bought a lemon cucumber, two peaches, and a set of honey sticks (kinda like pixie stix, but with flavored honey instead of sugar inside). Surprisingly, the whole experience only ended up costing $4.66 (that includes the berries and the other stuff we bought). What a bargain!

Here are some pics from our time:


Amongst the berry fields


Starting berryless


Teamwork works!


The fruits of our labor


Fun times at Kruger's Farm

3:33 PM Albert